the elegant term "whining," usually applied to pet dogs and puppies -see stanza last but three in the Nightingale's Lament, p. 61—is a poetical appellation for mental agony. According to our poetical barrister, the following words are supposed to rhyme :-" story," "more I;" "holy," "folly;" "power," "o'er;" "thou,” “ show;" .99 66 mass," erase; grown," "down;" "embrace," "delays;" "toil," "while;" "wrath," "path;" "weep enough," "cut me off;" cum multis aliis quæ nunc prescribere longum est. Another poetical peculiarity of our poet of the home circuit, is his love of making the most of a word of three or more syllables; he evidently considers such words as delirium, oblivion, and patriot, et hoc genus omne, very ill-treated by the world, and therefore makes the most of them. Exempli gratia: "From earth, not heaven, these raptures come; 'Tis nothing but de-li-ri-um."—P. 13. "The people bless their happy lot, And shout, and hail him pa-tri-ot.”—P. 15. "Vain mortal! thou among the dead, In cold o-bli-vi-on shalt lie." of Again, we are inclined to doubt whether Juno, the haughty queen heaven, when venting her wrath on Semele, for seducing the affections of her vagabond lord and master, would exactly use the word "tice,” unless she were a cockney. "A woman here, A mortal creature, moulded of the dust, Dares from my arms to tice the wanderer." In the majority of his verses Mr. Kennedy seems to have little notion of metre or time; and it is as difficult to arrange some of his irregular compositions, as to set in metrical order that pleasing metrical delusion, a Greek chorus. Even his best poem, that of the horses, is injured by the author's inattention to metrical accuracy; and many a line, of good thought and more than average poetry, loses all its effect by tripping too quick, or creeping too slowly after its predecessor. On what principle are the following stanzas, of a by no means inferior poem, composed? The two first lines of the first stanza consist each of three Iambi; the third line contains five monosyllables, the last only four. The second stanza presents the appearance of three lines, similar to the first and second of the first stanza, and one like the fourth of the same, if indeed like anything but itself. Here they are: "Methought I was alone; That none the deed espied! Where shall I hide? "And if no mortal eye, Yet God was there! Doubtless our poetical barrister will plead that greater men than he, even Dryden, Pope, or Byron, have been careless in their rhymes, indifferent to metre, and unhesitating in dividing adjectives from their nouns, to suit a metre or rhyme. Even so. It is but the fallacy of eccentricity in a new form. Homer sometimes nods; and when Mr. Charles Rann Kennedy is a Homer, he may nod too. Mr. Kennedy has an odd taste in similes. Among a multitude we will notice three-a cock crows like a waterfall springing down a mountain, or like the silver bell of a chime ringing in a turret, (p. 41). Mr. Kennedy's cocks would make the fortune of an itinerant showman. Richardson, were he alive, might rise again to eminence and fortune, on the strength of a Kennedean chanticleer. In some very bustling, and by no means bad stanzas-save as hereafter exceptedMr. Kennedy has described a railroad journey. The people get their tickets in verse, the bell rings in verse, the engine spits, screams, and hisses in verse; and all is metrical motion, until the town of their destination appears. Now sings the barrister-standing counsel to the antipodean railroad peradventure: "And steeple now, and pinnacle, and turret rose to view: What do our readers suppose that "as " " introduces? " A TURTLE DOVE!" "We halted; as the turtle dove stoops from her airy round, What, that screaming, scratching, lumbering, lingering load of iron, wood, water, and human beings, that rumbles up to the station with a spit and a hiss, a rub and a grunt, a jolt and a jumble, like a turtle dove dropping with tremulous pinion on the ground! Far more like the lord of Calipash and Calipee, with his rattling shell, his splay flappers, and the rough-and-tumble motion of his case-hardened body: not the turtle dove; the turtle without the dove, Mr. Kennedy. We cannot now delay over our author's laureate attempts on her Majesty and our infant prince; we admit their loyalty; loyalty equal to that of the compounders of the birth-day odes that used to encumber the poetical appendix of the Annual Register; equal to them also in their poetry. Pass we on to the last portion of Mr. Kennedy's labours, his by no means unpleasing translations from various German writers; Goethe, Schiller, Körner, Uhland, and several others, are versified with some freedom by our poet. Still, however, there is a disregard of critical accuracy, utterly unwarrantable in one who professes to be a German scholar, and soundly rates those who find accuracy in translation incompatible with freedom of poetic diction. Take, for instance, the translation of "Archimedes and the Scholar." "A studious youth to Archimedes came: Teach me that godlike art, that art of wondrous fame, 'Godlike thou call'st the art? Shé is,' the sage observ'd ; The real translation and meaning of the last two lines we believe to be: :-"Wouldst thou only have fruits of her? Mortals even can produce them. Let he who courts the goddess not think of courting the woman." But we will not pursue this portion of our notice, equally unpleasant to our readers and ourselves. People must not think that critics love to find fault; praise is much easier, because less discriminating than censure; but there are times when the rod must be used; and there are temptations that cannot be resisted. The following translation of one of Körner's extraordinary lyrics is about the best specimen of Mr. Kennedy's powers : "Good night! Peace to all that taste of sorrow! Day now hastens to its close, "Go to rest! Shut your eyelids: darkness falleth! Go to rest. : "Slumber sweet! Of your paradise be dreaming: Sleep ye till the morning breaketh: Calls to other cares away: If Mr. Kennedy will be a poet, let him turn his attention to versifying Blackstone, or to an edition of Queen's Bench reports in Sapphics. And then, on attaining to the dignity of the coif, he may with a calm conscience give in his sergeant's ring, with this motto, "Ne sutor ultra crepidam." Justorum Semita: a History of the Saints and Holydays of the present English Kalendar. Edinburgh: Grant. London: Burns. 1843. A BOOK which we commend heartily to the Church, if we will be content to read in a practical, rather than a disputatious spirit. Such a publication has long been a desideratum; and though we may not say, for we do not so think, that this is the very best that could be provided, yet it is so evident to the right-minded that it is written by a person of great devotional warmth, as well as creditable erudition in ecclesiastical matters, that we have but little sympathy with those who will make it an occasion for wrangling. It will serve to show to strangers from our communion, what depths of ancient piety and truth are involved in our Prayer-Book; and it is not a little creditable to the Scottish Church, that one of her sons has done so much in wiping away the stigma under which our Church labours, for not having already protested against that mean and miserable view of the Anglican Kalendar, which Wheatley's authority has rendered all but received among us. On this point, we venture on an extract from a most able preface: "How many changes have we beheld in our course since the fourteenth century, when the Council of Magfield enacted pious laws for the due honouring of the saints. Yet throughout all these changes one principle seems to prevail; the nearer any age approached in feeling and in creed to the standard of Catholic antiquity, the greater reverence did it pay to the memory of the saints. The Church of England was defrauded of nearly all of them by Cranmer and his foreign assistants; then Puritans prevented their restoration under the reign of Elizabeth. When men such as bishop Andrews were in favour the partial restoration of the Kalendar in 1604 was not surprising; nor that the rebels and fanatics in his son's reign should sweep away every trace of ancient devotion. And under the care of such guardians as Sparrow and Cosins and Pearson and Thorndike the Kalendar recovered more than it had lost since the days of King James I. The Puritans and Presbyterians still cherished the design of effacing from the English Church every remaining trace of her Catholic origin, and when her best sons were driven from her communion at the Revolution, they renewed their importunity that the legendary saints' days should be omitted.' Again she refused to purchase their obedience by such a sacrifice. Is it possible to believe that in those times at least the saints' days served no religious purpose? or that they were preserved, notwithstanding so many attempts to remove them, for no weightier reasons than those which Mr. Wheatley gives? The Church of England has declared the preservation of the memories of the saints to be one reason for retaining them in the Kalendar; and she has shown how highly she valued them in past times. Will her children now suffer these holy commemorations to be lost through neglect which their forefathers at great sacrifice secured for them? Will they continue to follow the example of Puritans and Protestants rather than of the holy Church throughout the world, and of the men of Catholic minds in their own? Oh, that the golden tongue of a Chrysostom, or the mellifluous eloquence of a Bernard could be heard in these days, to win Christians back to their duty and their high privilege! But when iniquity shall abound the love of many shall wax cold.' And truly if the contemplation of the gentle and holy persons whom we find in the Kalendar does not move us, the tongue of an angel would be heard in vain. Only reflect what men they were,' says the author of Morus, spirits so high above the world, dead to every selfish and sinful thought; possessed of such perfect devotion of mind and heart to the eternal world.' Behold the youthful virgins and martyrs, SS. Agnes and Margaret and Agatha; the blessed Magdalene, whose love to the Lord was great, because she had much forgiven; S. Hilary and S. Ambrose, the champions of the faith against the Arians; S. Alban, the protomartyr of England; and S. Augustin and S. Benedict, and S. David! Behold also S. Gregory the Great, and S. Augustin of Canterbury, the Apostles of England; the Venerable Bede, the light of the AngloSaxon Church; and S. Edward the Confessor! Isolated as has been the position of the Anglican Church for three centuries, there is still in the Kalendar a bond of union with the Catholic Church, which may one day be renewed as it was of old. The Eastern, African, Spanish, Roman, and Gallican Churches are all represented in it, and as we turn from one venerable name to another we are carried from century to century, from land to land, yet in all is displayed the same unity of faith, the same holy life, the same blessed death. Thus even in its present imperfect state does the Kalendar become to us an epitome of the Catholic Church, the communion of saints."Pp. xxxvi.-xxxviii. We object to the title: Prov. iv. 18, from which it is taken, has a very different meaning. In some quarters, we cannot give Justorum Semita greater praise than to say, that it reminds us not only in style -though this rarely, but in matter also of Mores Catholici. We venture, however, to add, that somewhat more of the quality and tone of mind which marks the author of the "Mores," as well as some of the living ornaments of our own communion, would have been a great improvement in the work before us. Those who have read Mr. Newman's last volume of sermons, and will compare their prevailing temper with that of some portions of the Semita (few portions, we willingly admit) will understand what we mean. High principle does not necessarily, and ought never to, lead to a contracted and one-sided view, either of our actual position, or even of history; faults into which young and over-zealous converts to Church-principles are apt to fall. Such must not take offence, if we remind them that they are altogether inconsistent with the perfection of the saintly character. The two great "serials of the Church, the Oxford Library of the Fathers, and the Anglo-Catholic Library, are proceeding with creditable punctuality and care. Each has been enriched with two volumes: the former with a volume of S. Chrysostom's Homilies, and another of S. Athanasius (enriched by Mr. Newman's erudition): the latter has brought out another portion of Beveridge, and the first part of Thorndike; and we are glad to find Johnson, Gunning, and Marshall already announced. It is scarcely possible, at the present juneture, to overrate the importance of this collection; and, while it is almost fearful to find what treasures we have hitherto disregarded, it is of course most encouraging to watch their present success. Happy omens are around us, if we will be worthy to retain them. Very late in the month we received Dr. Grant's Bampton Lectures for 1843, on "Missions," (Rivingtons.) The interest of the subject, the author's station, and the occasion on which these sermons were delivered, combine to render this one of the most important volumes of the year. We propose any other course would be disrespectful to devote an early paper to this very interesting and delightful work. A curious little-what shall we call it?-instrument, and explanatory pamphlet, called "The Orientator," has been put forth by the Cambridge Camden Society, to determine, by an extensive examination of examples, how far a rule obtained in determining the eastward bearing of our ancient churches. Wordsworth, of moderns, was among the first to observe that they varied according to the sun-rising on the day of dedication. The Marquis de Custine's remarkable book, "The Empire of the Czar," &c. has been translated, (Longman,) and will be found well worth reading, not merely for the sake of its subject, but of the opinions expressed in it on the state of Europe, especially on ecclesiastical matters. These are striking,-too striking, it may be; for M. de Custine is a Frenchman, and not given to say things in a quiet way,-but yet they are worthy of attention. We cannot think highly of the greater part of "Harry Mowbray," by Captain Knox, (Ollivier.) The foreign scenes seem to us a good deal better than the home ones. The author is, we believe, a man of real talent; and we have heard others of his works well spoken of by a competent authority; but, on the present occasion, we think he has aimed too high. The creation of character does not seem his forte, which rather resides in the narration of incident and adventure. He would write, we think, a romance better than a novel. We have not for a good while seen so thoroughly important and serviceable a book as "Notes on the Episcopal Polity of the Holy Catholic Church," &c. by T. W. Marshall, B.A., (Burns.) The "Account of the Development of Modern Religious Systems" is full of valuable information, and ought to be in the hands of every religious inquirer in our land. It is very common to speak of presbyterian Scotland as a splendid exception to the common tendencies of schism, and there are respects in which it is so; at the same time, we have always suspected that her doctrinal and practical condition, for the last century, have been regarded by all parties in a far more favourable light than the facts would be found to warrant, and Mr. Marshall establishes this. We wish, however, he had gone into it more fully, as those who are willing to surrender foreign Protestantism have often far too good an opinion of Scottish presby terianism. |